Placebo find greater success with independence

Placebo’s latest effort, Battle For the Sun, took the worldwide charts by storm last week, placing #51 on Billboard’s Top 200 (their highest debut in the U.S.), #8 on the Top Independent Albums Chart, notching Top 10 bows in UK, Australia, and Sweden, and taking the #1 spot in France, Germany, and Switzerland. “For What It’s Worth,” the lead single off of Battle is also performing respectably on U.S. radio stations, such as king-maker KROQ and Seattle’s influential The End.  In the U.S., Battle For the Sun was released June 9th on Vagrant Records. Check out the video for the new single..

Miss Jack Davey: ‘Why Should Artists Even Seek Major Label Deals?’

Briana Cartwright (‘Miss Jack Davey’ of the Warner Bros group J*Davey), wrote this open letter to the industry, it’s quite the diatribe, here’s a bit, this was posted a few months ago but somehow seems even more relevant today:

why should artists even seek major label deals ? they are completely outdated & obsolete . artists are sold the dream that talent can secure superstardom , but it becomes evident that labels only sign bands nowdays because of the band’s existing fanbase & record sales , or because they dig the artist’s look & want to cash in . they don’t want to develop the art . they don’t want the artist to express his/herself entirely . they just want the artist to comply with what will get the company a big monetary return . they sign you for millions , pimp you for pennies , then drop you a year later when the music they made you record & release is no longer relevant . you’re left on the streets unsigned & irrelevant & ready to infect the world with the music you’ve always wanted to make , but no one will take a chance on you due to your previous material . meanwhile , the label has already put white out over your signature on the slave deal & replaced it with a younger version of you . cold game , ain’t it ?

Turn on, tune in, get dropped!!!!!

Amanda Palmer, frrontwoman of Dresden Dolls, has one of the best, most personal blogs I have seen ever, and she is a master twitter manipulator.  If you did not see this post on her blog check it out, along with the link to her blog.. she’s been  left behind by the big label and has taken matters into her own hands…the below post is from her blog, you can also find it here:  http://blog.amandapalmer.net/

From: Amanda Palmer
Subject: twitter power, or “how an indie musician can make $19,000 in 10 hours using twitter”
this story has just been blowing people’s minds so i figures i should write it down.

1.  FRIDAY NIGHT LOSERS T-SHIRT, $11,000

about a month ago, i was at home on a friday night (loser that i often am when i’m not touring, i almost never go out) and was, of course, on my mac, shifting between emails, links and occasionally doing some dishes and packing for a trip the next day. just a usual friday-night-rock-star-multi-tasking extravaganza.

i twitter whenever i’m online, i love the way it gives me a direct line of communication with my fans and friends.

i had already seen the power of twitter while touring…using twitter i’d gathered crowds of sometimes 200 fans with a DAY’S notice to come out and meet me in public spaces (parks, mostly) where i would play ukulele, sign, hug, take pictures, eat cake, and generally hang out and connect. this was especially helpful in the cities where we’d been unable to book all-ages gigs and there were crushed teenagers who were really grateful to have a shot at connecting with me & the community of amanda/dolls fans.

i’d also been using twitter to organize ACTUAL last-minute gigs…i twittered a secret gig in LA one morning and about 350 folks showed up 5 hours later at a warehouse space….i played piano, filmed by current.tv, and then (different camera crew) did an interview with afterellen.com.
the important thing to undertsand here is that the fans were never part of the plan..,i basically just INVITED my fans to a press day, the press didnt’ plan it…i did.
i was going to be playing in an empty room and doing q&a with afterellen on a coach with only the camera watching.
it was like….why not tell people and do this in a warehouse instead of a hotel lobby or a blank studio? so i did.

it cost me almost nothing. the fans were psyched.

but back to the bigger, cooler story….

so there i am, alone on friday night and i make a joke on twitter (which goes out to whichever of my 30,000 followers are online):

“i hereby call THE LOSERS OF FRIDAY NIGHT ON THEIR COMPUTERS to ORDER, motherfucker.”
9:15 PM May 15th from web

one thing led to another, and the next thing you know there were thousands of us and we’d become the #1 topic trend on twitter.
zoe keating described it as a “virtual flash mob”.

the way twitter works (if you don’t have it) is that certain topics can include a hashtag (#) and if a gazillion people start making posts that include that hashtag, the topic will zoom up the charts of what people are currently discussing. it’s a cool feature.

so anyway, there we were, virtually hanging out on twitter on a friday night. very pleased with ourselves for being such a large group, and cracking jokes.

how do you “hang out” on the internet? well, we collectively came up with a list of things that the government should do for us (free government-issued sweatpants, pizza and ponies, no tax on coffee), AND created a t-shirt.
thank god my web guy sean was awake and being a loser with me on friday night because he throw up the webpage WHILE we were having our twitter party and people started ordering the shirts – that i designed in SHARPIE in realtime) and a slogan that someone suggested: “DON’T STAND UP FOR WHAT’S RIGHT, STAY IN FOR WHAT’S WRONG”. neil gaiman and wil wheaton joined our party. the fdnas felt super-special.

by the end of the night, we’d sold 200 shirts off the quickie site (paypal only) that sean had set up.
i blogged the whole story the next day and in total, in the matter of a few days, we sold over 400 shirts, for $25/ea.

we ended up grossing OVER $11,000 on the shirts.
my assistant beth had the shirts printed up ASAP and mailed them from her apartment.

total made on twitter in two hours = $11,000.
total made from my huge-ass ben-folds produced-major-label solo album this year = $0

2.
WEBCAST AUCTION, $6000

a few nights after that, i blogged and twittered, announcing a “webcast auction” from my apartment.
it went from 6 pm – 9 pm, my assitant beth sat at my side and kept her eyes on incoming bids and twitter feed.
while we hocked weird goods, i sang songs and answered questions from fans. we wore kimonos and drank wine. it was a blast.

people on twitter who were tuned in re-tweeted to other fans. the word spread that it was a fun place to be and watch.
we had, at peak, about 2000 people watching the webcast.

at the suggestion of a fan early in the webcastm anyone could, on demand, send us $20 via paypal and we would chew,
sign and mail them a postcard. we sold about 70, and we read all those names at the end of the webcast and thanked those
people for supporting us. here’s how the sales broke down:

all the items were signed by moi and hand-packed by beth and kayla._ the items and highest bidders were as follows:_ hilary, ukulele used on the european tour: $640 _jake, “guitar hero” plastic guitar controller used in album promo shoot: $250_ lary b, copy neo2 magazine, plus two post-war trade slap-bracelets & a crime-photo set: $230_ devi, glass dildo, with subtley-sordid backstory: $560 _liz b., “hipsters ruin everything” t-shirt, made by blake (get your very own here!!!!): $155.55_shannon m., my bill bryson book, a short history of neary everything: $280_ nikki, huge metal “the establishment” sign, used at rothbury festival for the circus tent i curated: $450 _j.r., purple velvet “A” dress used in the dresden dolls coin-operated boy video shoot: $400_ jessie & alan: who killed amanda palmer vinyl: $100_ nikki: wine bottle, auctioned BY REQUEST!!! $320 _shannon w., torn-to-shit vintage stockings used in the who killed amanda palmer/ michael pope video series: $200 _jodi,
school-note-book break-up letter, written to amanda from jonas woolverton in 7th grade (i still haven’t emailed him about that….): $250_ daryl, ANOTHER wine bottle, by request, that we had LYING AROUND: $320
and…………..
reto emailed, having barely missed the wine bottle, and asked us to send him “something funny” for $129.99. we sent a heath ledger statuette.

total made on twitter in 3 hours, including the postcards, was over $6000.
again, total made on my major-label solo album this year: $0

3.
TWITTER DONATION-ONLY GIG, $1800

a few days later, i twittered a guest-list only event in a recording studio in boston, to take place a week later.
the gig lasted about 5 hours, all told, with soundcheck and signing. i took mostly requests and we had a grand old time.
first come, first served. the first 200 people to ask got in, for free. i asked for donations and made about $2200 in cash.
i gave $400 back to the studio for the space and the help. we sold some weird merch. i think we should call it an even 2k.

total made at last-minute secret twitter gig, in about 5 hours = $2000
major-label record blah blah blah = $0

…..and for fun, and to thank my fans for being awesome, i’ve been doing some twitter perfomance art, including answering their questions by magic-markering my body until it’s covered, and displaying time-lapse make-up application advice….but that’s another story.

TOTAL MADE THIS MONTH USING TWITTER = $19,000
TOTAL MADE FROM 30,000 RECORD SALES = ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

turn on, tune in, get dropped!!!!!

Los Lobos leaving major labels behind

Grammy Award-winning band Los Lobos is targeting early 2010 for the release of its 18th album on new record label home Shout! Factory.  Shout! Factory is Los Lobos’ fourth label home, after tenures at Slash, Warner Bros. and Hollywood Records, which dropped the group after 2006′s “The Town and the City.”   Los Lobos report that group members were very active in listening to pitches from labels and felt Shout! Factory best fit their needs.  Los Lobos Steve Berlin adds that Shout! Factory “reminded me a lot of what Slash was back in the day…a lot of young, committed, bright-eyed people who…love music.”    Check out Los Lobos ‘Good Morning Aztlan’ here.

Mos Def sells T-Shirt AS album

This a good idea!  Mos Def’s new album The Ecstatic is available as a T-shirt.   When you buy a shirt that has The Ecstatic’s ‘Killer of Sheep’-interpolating cover art on the front, its tracklist on the back, and a download code for the album on a hang tag.

Mos Def is working with the fashion company Invisible Dj (www.invisibledj.com) on this new idea, called the Music Tee.

The new Mos Def album is also pretty darn good, check out snippets here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVpI9DpHaNA

TOM

Dave Stewart slams major label accounting customs

Dave Stewart, acclaimed producer and former founding member of the Eurythmics, has written an article for Billboard where he points out that any retailer in the world has access to amazingly detailed technology and tools to track transactions and settle details with credit card company merchant accounts. He notes how ridiculous it is that such systems have been available for nearly thirty years… and he still can’t get an accurate transparent accounting of what a record label has sold.

Check it out at Dave’s blog:  http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=177227489&blogId=494957713

This archaic accounting system will soon go the way of the dinosaur.  And on that note, check out my favorite Euryhmics song ‘Here Comes The Rain Again’.

Phoenix: ‘We never could have done this record on a major label’

From an interview that Phoenix’s Christian Mazzalai did in San Francisco—

Q: What’s going on with your label and how they dropped you?
A: We have our own label. Before, we always did everything, but we had to fight to get it. We are tired. We wanted not to fight. We never could have done this record if we were on a major label. Like, we rented a boat on the Seine. We also rented a hotel room in New York. Almost all the budget was spent on inspiration only. A major company would never understand it.

The new Phoenix record is genius!  Check out their video for their new single ‘Lisztomania’.

Ari Hest Ditches Major-Label Life

As Ari Hest continues his relentless touring, press coverage continues to praise his bold move to abandon a label deal and strike out on his own.  Hest’s new Springsteen/Car Stevens-influenced new CD ‘Twelve Mondays’ features re-worked versions of 12 fan-selected songs, culled from his recently-completed, trailblazing ‘52’ project, during which he wrote, recorded, produced and released one new song per week, for 52 weeks in a row.  Stream songs here: www.brickwallmgmt.com/arihest/

Hest has generated steady national and regional attention for his ‘52’ and ‘Twelve Mondays’ releases, with coverage including multiple appearances in USA TODAY, and PERFORMING SONGWRITER MAGAZINE, as well as placements in ACOUSTIC GUITAR MAGAZINE, NBC’S WEEKEND TODAY SHOW, PASTE, regional TV and numerous other outlets. THE WASHINGTON POST’s Mark Jenkins recently described Ari as “an urbane folk-rocker with a sonorous baritone,” and added,  “a Byrds-style jangle lifts “I’ll Be There,” a tune whose punch line is unusually wry for Hest: “I’ll be there/To make you miserable,” the chorus jauntily promises…”  Hest’s version of ‘Hallelujah’ is being used in Season 2 promos for ‘The Cleaner’ on A&E.  Here is one of our favorite Ari Hest songs “So Slow”.

Anti Flag – Back from the backlash

After two albums with RCA, including last year’s more polished “The Bright Lights of America,” Anti-Flag sounds like it’s back to its thrashy DIY roots on a fast and furious ninth album, its first for indie SideOneDummy.  “Bright Lights..,” is produced by producer Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T. Rex), and is a more experimental record reflecting some tough personal issues for the band members, not the least of which was the murder of bassist-singer Chris #2′s sister.  We saw Anti Flag a few years back and thought they were amazing live, then they signed to a major label and somehow simultaneously the fire went out.  The albums they made for RCA were mediocre at best.  This album is a major return to form–and they recorded it in their home rehearsal room/studio!!  Check out this new song from their new record, it’s called ‘On Independance Day’.

Dredg on their own!

The band called Dredg has never had a big hit single or a major national TV appearance.  Over its past 15 years, the group has made a profound mark on the Bay Area scene while galvanizing fans on both sides of the Atlantic. They have been ignoring commercial trends and following its artistic instincts with a mix of meticulous perfectionism and wild experimentation, studious contemplation and aggressive abandon.
Dredg is still the same four guys who came together to play punk and metal in 1993 at Los Gatos High School: Hayes, guitarist Mark Engles, drummer-keyboardist Dino Campanella and bassist Drew Roulette. But as the members enter their 30s, having spent half their lives making music together, they find themselves at a crucial juncture. The band will release its fourth studio album, “The Pariah, the Parrot, the Delusion,” on Tuesday on its own Ohlone Recordings label; longtime label Interscope dropped the band shortly before the record was completed.  Check out their video for the single from their last album ‘Bug Eyes’.